Wings

I love hot wings... I could eat wings once a week. Last summer J. and I did wings every Thursday night for dinner. We grilled them, fried them and even once, baked them. Grilling was the easiest way to do them. Just fire up the gas grill and toss them on. We also grilled them on a charcoal grill. Those were awesome. Frying the wing turns out to be the best tasting wing. It just takes more time and having to deal with the oil afterward. We played with the sauces. J would make her sauce and I would do mine. I like my sauce to be a bit hotter than she would like. Below are the wings from the last time we did them (a few weeks ago because I was ski-dooing out west). I dusted them in flour and deep fried them, sauced them in my favorite pepper sauce with some butter and sugar. Sorry, no exact quantities on the wing sauce, I'm bound by confidentiality. HA HA.

Drunken Gourmet's Drunken Chicken

Its been a while since my last post, not because I haven't been cooking, but just too busy snowmobiling and working to sit down and blog about it.  The meals that I have been preparing are just not blog worthy as of late.  The weather is starting to come around and warm up.  The days are longer and it just feels about that time... Grilling Time.  I just returned home from a week of snowmobiling in the mountains of Wyoming.  Needless to say I needed to cook something.  So I put together an entire meal all on the grill.  I brined a whole chicken in Alaskan Winter Ale beer and rub with some dry herbs, cut up some red potatoes and wrapped them foil for the grill as well.  Since I had the foil out, I wrapped up some whole garlic bulbs and roasted them. Oh, I didn't forget the salad either, I grilled that too.

Alaskan Winter Ale Brined Grilled Chicken

Brine:

·        2 Bottles of Alaskan Winter Ale

·        6-8 Garlic Cloves, peeled and crushed

·        1/3 cup Kosher Salt

·        1/3 cup White Sugar

·        1 TBS Whole Black Peppercorns

·        1 TBS Whole Allspice Berries

·        1 medium Onion, diced

·        2 cups Ice Cubes

Method:

In a medium saucepan, bring1 bottle of the beer to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until reduced by half.  Add the second bottle followed by the garlic, salt, sugar, peppercorns, allspice, and onions.  Remove from heat and allow to cool for 15-20 minutes.  Add ice to cool.  Put chicken in a zip top bag and add brine.  Refrigerate for 4-12 hours.

Grilling Part:

Remove chicken from brine.  Remove any peppercorns or allspice berries.  Pat dry with paper towels.  Season with salt and pepper and any herb dry rub of your choice.  Prepare hot grill.  Grill using indirect grilling method until internal temp. reaches 175 degrees at the thickest part of the bird.

Grilled Romaine Salad

• 1 Head of Romaine Lettuce
• 1-2 TBS Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper
• 1/ cup Bread Crumbs
• ½ cup Parmesan Cheese
• Vinaigrette Salad Dressing of your choice

Trim the head of lettuce by removing the outer leaves and exposing the lighter “hearts” of the lettuce.  Keep the stems attached.  Cut in halt lengthwise and drizzle lightly with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Grill 1 to 2 minutes or until just wilted and grill marks appear.  Turn over and sprinkle with some breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese, grill another 1-2 minutes.  Remove from heat and serve immediately with the vinaigrette dressing.

Roasted Garlic

·        Whole Garlic Bulbs

·        Olive Oil

·        Salt and Pepper

·        Alum. Foil

Method:

Cut the tops of the garlic bulbs with a knife.  Place the bulbs on a sheet of alum foil and drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Loosely wrap the garlic in the foil, but make sure ends are sealed.  Place on grill along with whatever your grilling.  Roasting time should be about 45 minutes to an hour depending on temp.  The garlic can be roasted in an oven also.  When the garlic is soft and cooked through, carefully using a couple of paper towels, squeeze the cloves out into a small bowl.  Mash with a fork and serve on fresh bread, season with salt. 










Sorry, roasted garlic is not very photogenic.